This disclosure relates generally to autonomous vehicles and more specifically to autonomous bicycle systems.
Many users have a need for on demand short distance transportation, for example for traveling between destinations within a city center when the user does not have transportation of their own. Currently, each available solution is either inconvenient or inflexible in providing this type of transportation service to a user. For example, traditional public transportation (such as buses and subway systems) may not provide service from the user's current location or to the desired destination. Similarly, taxi or rideshare services can be relatively expensive for short trips, can get stuck in traffic, and, because they are operated by a driver, remove the user's agency in choosing the route. Finally, public “bikeshare” services require either saturating the entire service area with many static pickup points (or large numbers of vehicles) at large expense, or risk being unavailable at the user's current position. Therefore, a solution is needed to provide convenient, on-demand transportation to users without requiring the expense and loss of agency inherent in taxi or rideshare services.
The figures depict various embodiments for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles described herein.